League overseeing state athletics abruptly scraps meeting with disability advocates

The Minnesota State School League canceled a meeting with a group of disability lawyers and advocates after Whistleblower wrote an article about the challenges that parents of children with mental health or learning disabilities face when challenging the league's transfer policy.

The meeting was meant to help give the league and its attorneys a better understanding of the law and how it pertains to the league, attorney Andrea Jepsen with the School Law Center said. Now, she said, the league is opening itself up to a lawsuit.

"It’s a strange position to take, particularly for a state agency, particularly given the potential expense to the state in litigating the matter, and greater expense if it loses," Jepsen said in an e-mail Monday. "The League doesn't like to be pushed, so the article seems to have worked them into a real snit."

The meeting was in the final stages of being scheduled among the league's attorneys and Minnesota Disability Law Center, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, and the School Law Center, but was canceled by the league "in light of the media intervention," Joseph Kelly, the league's attorney, said in an e-mail to the organizations.

Kelly told Whistleblower that league plans to have discussions with other advocacy groups but would not say which ones.